


Please Forgive Me For My Faults

by tiniestmite



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [13]
Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Appendicitis, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Fainting, Fever, Gen, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sickfic, Vomiting, Worried Owen Strand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:55:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28464912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiniestmite/pseuds/tiniestmite
Summary: TK shows up to work fairly sick, but tries his best to cover it up and do his job... it doesn't work out well.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand, Mateo Chavez & TK Strand, TK Strand & Everyone
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1984406
Comments: 20
Kudos: 216
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Please Forgive Me For My Faults

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Stennerd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stennerd/gifts).



> Written for the “hiding an illness” square on my bthb card (open for requests - see the board [here](https://officerrxyes.tumblr.com/) :) 
> 
> Requested by @captainstennarstar who said ""Jamie! For the bthb card may I request TK hiding an illness, perhaps on the job and collapsing? Or not, of course, entirely up to you where you want to go with the prompt 💖”
> 
> Title from "Iffy" by Caamp

TK takes a deep breath as he exits his Uber and glances over to the firehouse. He grimaces, knowing that he should have just called out. But with his dad still asleep when he woke up feeling like shit after an entire night of feeling like shit, he decided to just quickly get ready and avoid causing any worry. 

And lucky for him, his dad also stayed asleep as his body rejected last night's dinner. Eventually the sharp, stabbing pain appeared, starting at his belly button before moving ever so slowly to the right. It hurt, but he figured it was just a nasty stomach bug. Nothing he couldn’t handle.

So he skipped breakfast and slipped out of the house before Owen even made it downstairs.

Now at the station, he prepares himself for what’s sure to be a long shift if the pain in his stomach doesn’t ease up any time soon. Plastering on his best fake smile, he walks into the truck bay and spots Marjan and Paul already hard at work cleaning the truck. 

“Hey, Strand,” Paul greets him with a smile, which quickly falls off his face as he takes in TK's appearance. “You feeling okay?”

Marjan also perks up, giving him a concerned look. “Yeah, TK. You look a little pale.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he lies. Though the pains in his stomach are only growing in intensity, it’s nothing he can’t handle. He’s worked through shifts before when sick and he’s gotten fairly good at hiding how he feels. Though he better step-up his game today, considering Paul could tell within seconds of looking at him that something was up.

“You don’t look fine, man.”

“Then stop looking,” TK jokes, hoping that would get his co-workers off his back. It must work because Paul just shrugs and they both go back to their tasks of wiping down various areas of the firetruck.

With the attention now off of him, he takes the opportunity to slip out of the truck bay and heads up the stairs towards the locker room. Within seconds of entering a bathroom stall, another wave of nausea washes over him and he finds himself emptying what little was left in his stomach. 

When he finishes dry heaving, he sags back leaning against the stall to catch his breath. Getting through the day might be more difficult than he thought if he can’t go more than a few minutes without feeling like he’s going to puke up an organ.

Just then, another sharp pain shoots through his stomach. 

_ Oh yeah, that’s going to be a problem too. _

He scrunches up on the floor of the bathroom with an arm wrapped tightly around his abdomen, waiting for the intense pain to stop.

As it settles into a more subtle ache, he’s eventually able to pull himself up off the floor and unlock the stall. Luckily for him, the rest of the bathroom is still empty. 

He catches a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror, noticing he does look much worse than he did the last time he checked. In addition to his paleness that Marjan picked up on, there’s now a layer of sweat glistening on top of his skin and dark bags under his eyes.

He splashes some water on his face, hoping that’s enough to hide how terrible he really feels, before he exits the locker room. He doesn’t get more than a few steps out before he runs into his dad who gives him the same concerned look Paul and Marjan gave him earlier.

“Hey, you feeling alright?” Owen asks, stopping him in his tracks while reaching for his forehead. 

TK ducks out of his reach, not wanting the captain to notice the fever he is most definitely running. “Yeah, I just didn’t sleep that well last night.”

Owen looks like he’s about to press on the issue more but they are both cut off by the sound of the alarm going off. 

“We will finish the conversation later,” Owen says sternly before they both head off to the rig. As much as his father liked to act professional while they were on a shift together, his eyes betrayed his worry, as they always did.

Running a hand through his hair - trying to ignore the way his sweat glued it to his skin - TK sat down next to Paul in the engine and avoided the other firefighter’s gaze. If Paul got even a whiff of how unsure TK was about whether or not he was actually okay, TK would be benched for the rest of the day. 

“You good, Strand?” Paul asked.

TK didn’t lift his head as his vision blurred a little and he bit his lip, hoping to keep himself steady. “I’m fine.”

Paul nods. If he doesn’t believe him, he doesn’t bring it up again.

* * *

Pulling up to the scene of the car accident, he surveys what the damage is. It doesn’t look to be too severe, with only a few cars involved and several of the victims already standing outside of their vehicles. He can see though that there are at least one or two victims still stuck inside. 

Owen wastes no time once they get out of the truck to start rattling off their assignments. “Alright, Paul and Marjan I want you to help EMS with triage. TK and Mateo, I need you two to assess the victims still stuck in their vehicles. Judd, you’re with me to start clearing the road.”

With a chorus of “yes cap,” the members of the 126 head off in various directions to tackle the tasks they had been assigned.

“You ready for this, probie?” TK asks Mateo, feigning a smile and ignoring the sharp pains shooting across his abdomen. He knows this won’t be easy, but it’s too late now to call out of his shift so the least he can do is follow through and set a good example for the newest firefighter.

“I was born ready”

Walking up to the first car, TK takes in the state of the victim. She doesn’t appear to have any serious injuries, but they need to approach this carefully considering she is still stuck inside her vehicle.

He crouches down to meet her eye level, ignoring the flash of pain the movement causes and tries his best to mask the wince that no doubt appears on his face. “Hey there, my name’s TK and this is Mateo. We’re gonna get you out of here. Can you tell me your name?”

“Lydia,” the victim stutters out. 

“Okay, Lydia. Does anywhere hurt?”

She shakes her head. “No, just can’t get this door open.”

TK nods, mentally processing all the information to assess the scenario. He stands up, ignoring the black spots that rush into his vision with the motion. When his vision clears, he finds Mateo staring at him, waiting for some sort of guidance. “Study the scene Probie,” he instructs, “take note of where the victim is, how the vehicle is situated and decide our approach.” 

Mateo does as he asks, studying the scene before them intently. Eventually the other firefighter’s face lights up as he figures out the answer. “We need the jaws!”

TK nods and gives Mateo a light pat on the back and watches as he heads off toward the truck to get the jaws of life. 

With the other firefighter out of sight, TK takes a minute to close his eyes and hope that it relieves some of the stomach pain that continues to grow in an intensity. It doesn’t do much. If anything it makes it worse. The dark spots in his vision are coming more and more frequently now, it’s getting harder to see around them. 

Turning back to the victim, he crouches down again to meet the victims eye. “You doing okay, Lydia?”

She nods, as they wait for Mateo’s return. 

When he goes to stand back up, TK stumbles a little but he catches himself and straightens his posture. Setting his shoulders back and shaking his head a little, he hopes to dispel at least a little bit of his dizziness. He has a job to do, he can’t let himself be distracted. These people need his help. 

Apparently he wasn’t as subtle as he thought. He feels two hands on his shoulders, potentially to steady him but TK isn’t sure. He looks up to meet Mateo’s eyes, the probie has definitely not mastered his poker face and he looks almost scared. 

“TK, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

He wants to say yes because his abdomen feels like it’s trying to digest itself and he just wants to crawl into a ball on the ground and wait for the pain to pass, but he can’t. This is Mateo he’s talking to, the probie, and it’s his job to take the lead and show the younger firefighter the way. He can’t afford to be dramatic right now.

“No, no, I’m fine,” he mumbles, blinking a little faster than usual as dark spots dance around the edge of his vision. “Totally… fine. I’m good- nope, I’m good, probie.”

“Really? You’re really pale and you’re repeating your words. You look like you’re going to fall over, TK. I’m not an idiot, you know.”

“Never thought you were,” TK says, his voice weaker and more breathy than he anticipated. “But Mateo?”

“Yeah, TK?”

“You might wanna catch me.”

He hears Mateo shout his name as his knees buckle. If he hits the ground, he doesn’t feel it.

* * *

The first thing he’s aware of when he opens his eyes is how bright the lights are. Too bright - which gives away exactly where he is.

The next thing he notices is Carlos, sitting wide awake in the chair next to his hospital bed. He can clearly see that TK is awake, but has yet to say a word. Instead he is just looking at him, signs of worry painted all over his face.

“What happened?” TK asks, realizing he’s going to have to be the one to break the silence first

“Your appendix burst while you were on a call.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” Carlos agrees. While there’s no hint of animosity in his voice, it’s clear in the way he speaks that he was more than worried about TK. 

“I thought it was just a stomach bug,” TK bites his lip. “I didn’t think it was that bad.”

“But it was that bad, TK,” Carlos’ voice breaks with emotion. It’s then that TK notices the tears welling in his boyfriend’s eyes and it hits him how hard it must have been when he found out, 

“I’m really sorry, Carlos. If I thought I was really sick, you know I would have gotten help.”

“I want to believe that but I don’t know if it’s true ,” the other man sighs. “I mean, how many warning signs did you ignore for it to get this bad?”

“The pain was pretty bad, but it was manageable. I had a job to do.”

He watches as Carlos shakes his head. He knows he’s just brushing this off, but he doesn’t exactly want to dwell on the fact that he let it get to the point where he nearly died.

“Kind of hard to do your job if your appendix betrays you,” Carlos says softly.

TK nods in agreement. 

“I was just worried about you, okay? Do you know how scary it is to get this kind of call?” Carlos leans over and grabs TK’s hand. That’s when TK notices how much Carlos is shaking, even after knowing that TK would be okay, he was still feeling the effects of that call.

“I know, and I’m sorry I put you through this. But, I’m okay now though.”

Carlos gives him a weak smile. “I guess you could say that.”

TK returns the smile and scooches over on the bed as best he can. “Why don’t you come up?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, TK. You haven’t been out of surgery long, and you should just rest. I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”

“Please,” TK pouts until Carlos resigns and carefully slides onto the bed next to him. TK immediately melts into Carlos’ side, resting his head on the other man’s shoulder. “I’m really glad you’re here.”

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”

**Author's Note:**

> I love comments and kudos a lot
> 
> Please bother me on [tumblr](https://officerrxyes.tumblr.com/)


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